Marriage rates in England and Wales have fallen to the lowest level on record, government figures published today have revealed.

The proportion of adults who chose to marry in 2006 fell to the lowest level since marriage rates were first calculated in 1862, according to provisional figures published by the Office for National Statistics.

In 2006, 22.8 men per 1,000 unmarried men aged 16 and over got married, down from 24.5 in 2005.

The marriage rate for women in 2006 was 20.5 per 1,000 unmarried women aged 16 and over, down from 21.9 in 2005.

In 2006, the number of marriages fell by 4%, compared with the previous year, to 236,980. This is the lowest annual number of marriages since 1895, when there were 228,204.

More than three-fifths (61%) of all marriages in 2006 were the first for both parties, while remarriages for both parties accounted for just under one fifth (18%).

First marriages have fallen by more than one third (37%) since 1981, while remarriages have fallen by a quarter.

The figures show that people are also waiting longer until they marry. The average age at which men married was 36.4 years in 2006, a rise of almost five years since 1991.

The average age at which women married in 2006 was 33.7, an increase of just over 4.5 years since 1991.

Final figures for 2005, published by the ONS today, show marriages fell by 9% from the previous year.

The largest fall occurred in London (29%) and the smallest in the north-east of England (3%).

Final figures for divorces in 2005 also showed a drop on the previous year. Divorce rates in England and Wales fell by 8% between 2004 and 2005, declining to 13.1 divorces per 1,000 married people.

Kathleen Kiernan, a professor of social policy and demography at the University of York, said the figures reflected the rise in the number of couples opting for "informal unions".

Kiernan said marriage rates had declined across the developing world, with people choosing to cohabit for longer before they married.

"It's not that people are not choosing to form partnerships," she said. "People are spending longer cohabiting, but they do eventually marry.

"If you were to look at the proportion who do eventually marry, it's likely that the decline would not be as striking."

Jill Kirby, the director of the centre-right Centre for Policy Studies thinktank, blamed the declining marriage rate on the government, saying the welfare system and tax breaks penalised married couples.

"It's obviously worrying that they [marriage numbers] have reached such a low ebb, but perhaps not surprising in view of the lack of government policy over the last 10 years encouraging marriage," she said.

She also voiced concerns about the detrimental impact if marriage was "lost as the core institution of society".

"A clear reason for concern is that research demonstrates how important marriage is to maintain stability for children," she added. "The break-up of cohabiting couples is much higher than married couples. Cohabitation is clearly not a satisfactory arrangement as far as children are concerned."